- 2 months ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:01Here's to swimming with bow-legged women.
00:03Woo!
00:04The Bakken oil field, where finding a job is easy.
00:07She's coming down here to be a truck driver to make better
00:10money than you can make with a master's degree.
00:12But finding workers isn't.
00:14Keep interviewing more people, keep putting the word out
00:16that we're still hiring.
00:17It's hard to find anybody to work any other jobs
00:20because they know they can go out to the oil field
00:22and make a lot more money.
00:23Cool to start a fire.
00:25I'm burning diesel, burning dinosaur bone.
00:28And the explosion was so loud that they felt it 10 miles away.
00:31The only way I'm going to be a participant in the vehicle
00:33is if you don't make your payments.
00:35Then I'm going to come get it.
00:36It's definitely sink or swim.
00:38And the last thing I want to do is sink.
00:40I'm gonna break, I'm gonna break my, gonna break my rusty cage.
00:47I'm gonna break, I'm gonna break my, gonna break my rusty cage.
00:58Each morning around 2 a.m., husband, father, and oil truck driver Ben Moorhead wakes up his wife Phoebe.
01:13With two jobs and two young boys, it's the only chance the couple has to spend quality time together.
01:19I met Phoebe when I owned my truck.
01:22I was an owner operator doing a load of peroxide.
01:25There was a Flying J truck stop and a bar right behind it.
01:28There she was. We were both gypsy spirits.
01:30And she jumped in the truck with me shortly after that.
01:32And we cruised around the country for a while.
01:35And next thing I know, she's like, you're gonna be a dad.
01:38I wanted to live on the road. I didn't want to have any responsibilities.
01:42But being a dad now, I wouldn't change it for the world.
01:48Like many Boomtowners, Ben and Phoebe both work full-time jobs, which means they need daycare for their kids.
01:55But their options are few and far between.
02:00The line starts lining up at 3 o'clock in the morning.
02:05Apparently, it's the only option for this whole damn town.
02:09They take the first 100 kids.
02:10I thought it was a lottery. I thought it was a randomly.
02:12Nope.
02:13They take the first 100 kids in line, like Black Friday.
02:16I'm stuck in court hearings every day.
02:18Right.
02:19So I suppose I'll be standing in line.
02:21If they can't get a daycare spot, then Phoebe will have to quit her job as a court reporter.
02:28When did the doors open?
02:30I think right at 7.
02:32Oh.
02:33But that's why I can't do it.
02:35My father told me when I expressed to him when I was a young adult that, no, I have no intention of being a dad.
02:42I don't want to be a dad.
02:43And he said, you will never know true love until you feel the love of a child.
02:49And he was absolutely 100% correct.
02:51There is nothing like it.
02:52There is no feeling like it in the world.
02:54So I'll leave here, stand in line from 3 to 7.
03:00Uh.
03:01Sign him up.
03:023 to 7 if you're lucky.
03:04And then go to work and work a 14-hour day.
03:07Yep.
03:08Okay.
03:11It's all about sacrifice.
03:12After I became a dad, it wasn't about me anymore.
03:14It wasn't about having a big, nice truck and being able to go out to the bar and all this other stuff.
03:18It just didn't matter anymore.
03:20Well, I'll give you a massage when you get home.
03:22How about that?
03:24Take care about it.
03:25I think you're full of .
03:27Love you, Chris.
03:28Love you.
03:29Love you, too.
03:30Haley Mint and fiance Larissa Hurst own a semi-trailer truck that hauls pipe to drill sites in the Bakken.
03:48They're one of the many oil industry support businesses that benefit from the boom.
03:53A boom that's generated about 270,000 new jobs in the U.S.
03:58But their year-old business has been in financial trouble since a contractor went bankrupt, owing them $50,000.
04:05It'll be a short day, thank God.
04:07Haley has been hatching a mysterious plan to pull them out of debt.
04:11A plan she hasn't told Larissa.
04:14Have it all figured out.
04:21Haley has finally revealed her idea.
04:24She wants to buy a second truck to haul frac sand.
04:27It could mean steady work, but it's a risky move at a time when they can barely pay their bills.
04:33I think right now she's more excited than anything because she thinks this is our golden ticket to get out of this hole that we're in.
04:41They'll be test driving the truck later today, and if the deal goes through, they'll need a second driver.
04:48Ashley King is a friend who's visiting from Texas.
04:51She could be that driver.
04:53If she gets this other truck, that'll be pretty awesome because I'll run this truck and then she'll run the sand truck.
05:04It's only been a week since Ashley received a commercial learner's permit to drive a truck, but she's no stranger to learning.
05:13I have a master's in athletic training, sports medicine.
05:16It's a medical field, which it's funny because they always say go into the medical field because there's always money there.
05:24There's always jobs, which is true.
05:26But the first job I took right out of grad school, I was there for about six weeks and it only paid 32 grand a year, which with $84,000 of student loans, that doesn't really help you live.
05:44A new trucker in the Bakken can make $100,000 a year with no degree and only minimum training.
05:51Experienced drivers can make much more.
05:54You've got people coming from all over the place and she's coming down here to be a truck driver to make better money than you can make with a master's degree.
06:03It's crazy.
06:06Fellas, I appreciate everything y'all do, day in, day out.
06:16We wouldn't be where we're at without everybody sitting at this table.
06:19Cheers!
06:21Dan Dooley is the head welder of HLD Services, a growing company that supports the oil industry in the Bakken.
06:28Dan's 24-year-old wife, Hannah, owns and operates the business.
06:32Tonight, we are having a company appreciation dinner.
06:36So we invited all of our employees.
06:38Did everybody get in their hotel rooms okay?
06:40Yes, sir.
06:41This is mine and Hannah's family.
06:43This is our business.
06:45And all the employees that we have are basically not from here.
06:49So we want them to feel like you're not just here for a job.
06:52We take care of you, you know, your family, cookouts, dinners, you know.
06:57The 31-ounce porterhouse, if somebody can do it, I'll pay you.
07:00That's a lot of meat.
07:01What are you going to pay me?
07:02A hundred bucks.
07:03But you have to eat your whole side, like your whole plate.
07:05And rice and a salad.
07:06That's absolutely nothing.
07:07It's the steak that's hard.
07:08It's a potato.
07:09The labor shortage in the Bakken makes it extremely difficult to attract and keep employees.
07:14So the Dooley's do everything they can to keep theirs happy.
07:18All work and no play makes Jack a very dull boy.
07:2132-ounce beef right there, baby.
07:25I like it.
07:26I like it.
07:27I like it.
07:28Here's to swimming with bow-legged women.
07:29Woo!
07:30Woo!
07:31Woo!
07:32John Carlyle is a colleague and Dooley's best friend.
07:36Well, I've known Dooley for a long time.
07:38I don't know, 10 or 12 years.
07:40We worked together back home in New Mexico for a little while.
07:43And when they first started, it was just me and Dooley.
07:45And I was growing to quite a few guys.
07:48Having a good time with it.
07:49Making a lot of money.
07:50John is about to become family.
07:53In only three days, you will marry Hannah's sister, Jennifer.
07:57The only thing I'm nervous about is that not everything's going to come together.
08:01Because I'm a perfectionist and a control freak, and I want everything to go off perfectly.
08:12Is there anybody ready to not pump this State 7 of the Yellow Well?
08:17Liberty Oil Field Services is 78 hours into fracking two wells near Williston, North Dakota.
08:24Twelve monster pumps are sending fluids and sand down the wells at extremely high pressure,
08:29fracturing the oil-rich shale rock in stages along a horizontal pipe two miles underground.
08:35All right, guys, we're going to kick it off.
08:37Rocky, we're going to put a pump in gear.
08:39Let's make sure we're moving some fluid, please.
08:41Hello, fellas.
08:42Can I get a sand strap on bin 1 of 5005, please?
08:45Cleaner, too.
08:46Travis Bostic and Justin Allen are the frack supervisors.
08:5030 barrels a minute.
08:51Once it probably starts getting around 88, I'm probably going to start dropping gears.
08:56Justin, what was your number on 4070?
08:58This well site is leased by Zavana, an oil exploration and production company.
09:03They've hired Liberty to frack 70 stages on these two wells.
09:08The Liberty crew has just started stage seven.
09:11At over $100,000 a stage, there's a lot at stake.
09:15But the frack crew is getting word there's a major problem.
09:19Want to start walking that hopper down for me?
09:21Justin finishes the stage.
09:25I'm calm.
09:26You're the one wicking out over there.
09:29Anybody mind peeking into that flow back tank and see if that gel in there is broke?
09:34Time is money, but safety is paramount.
09:37They learn that their frack is affecting another Zavana drill nearby.
09:41Right now we're shut down because of that rig over there, right?
09:47So while we're fracking, they're drilling, they're going right here.
09:50We're pushing fluid up and they got fluid going down.
09:53We're communicating.
09:54So that's bad for business.
09:57While this is typically called the Bakken boom, there are actually two formations fueling the boom.
10:03The three forks sits just below the Bakken.
10:06It's estimated to contain about 3.75 billion barrels of oil.
10:12Both the wells being fracked and drilled are in the three forks pay zone.
10:16The pressure created by the frack could cause an explosive release of oil, gas, and water from the other well, better known as a blowout.
10:25To prevent this, the entire frack is shut down indefinitely.
10:30The average Bakken well costs $9 to $10 million to drill.
10:35These just got more expensive.
10:45Well, you have a beautiful facility. I'm really proud of it.
10:47Well, thank you.
10:48And I wish you the best.
10:49Well, thank you very much.
10:50You bet.
10:51So this is our final certificate of occupancy.
10:54Finally good to go, officially.
10:56Travis Peterson is one step closer to fulfilling his lifelong dream of opening his own brewery and restaurants.
11:04Ready to push the button?
11:06Push the green one.
11:07Ready?
11:08See it spinning?
11:10Travis can pursue his passion for brewing beer because, thanks to the oil boom, profits at the family concrete business have soared.
11:19My parents knew it had always been a long-term pipe dream of mine to open a brewery.
11:25And so they said, well, we think you should do it.
11:28The number of new businesses in the Bakken have grown by almost 50% in the last six years, compared to 3% for the rest of the country.
11:3623rd is going to be a big day.
11:38It's going to be a big deal.
11:39I mean, we're going to introduce our beer for the first time.
11:42And it'll be Sydney's first brewery.
11:44So I want the people of Sydney to be proud of it.
11:47But Travis has a problem.
11:49There's a worker shortage in the Bakken.
11:52It's so severe that some fast food restaurants can only open a few days a week.
11:57The service industry is competing with oil companies for workers.
12:01And the oil field pays a lot better, making Bakken wages 50% higher than the national average.
12:07Staffing is always an issue.
12:09We've had a couple of people that I really wish we wouldn't have hired.
12:12We take more of a chance with people now.
12:15Of course, we have to learn from our mistakes the hard way.
12:18So we had another good influx of new people higher on in the last two weeks.
12:23The problem is we had some that aren't great, keep interviewing more people, keep putting
12:29the word out that we're still hiring.
12:31Even if Travis can fill his staffing quota, the new hires will have next to no training
12:36time.
12:37Meadowlark will be taking a big risk putting them on the floor for opening day.
12:42Which leads us into the next point about the staff training.
12:46It's continuous training.
12:48I don't want to do it in front of customers, obviously.
12:51But I also don't want to do it in front of some of the staff members that aren't going
12:55to know how to take it.
12:56You know, you three are the ones that have to lead everybody else in here.
13:00When we hire new people on, we can schedule Lacey and I to be on the floor with them and
13:05have them shadow us.
13:06We're getting there.
13:07You know, it's one of the reasons why we had the staff meeting today, just to get
13:10everybody in the loop, get their game faces on, be prepared the best we can.
13:14Super happy that we're finally getting to this point.
13:17Oh, no, no, no.
13:22No, tomorrow it'll be sunny.
13:24Yesterday it was sunny.
13:26Today is not sunny.
13:28This morning, Ben Moorhead is in line.
13:31Like hundreds of other parents, he's trying to enroll his two sons in daycare.
13:35I usually go to work at 3 o'clock in the morning.
13:38I wake up at 2 a.m.
13:39So instead of going to work, I set my alarm.
13:412 a.m. came down here, sat in line.
13:43Then after we get them signed up, I get to go to work for a 14-hour day.
13:47I should be down around 10 o'clock tonight.
13:49I mean, I'm looking down the line and most of these people are not local people.
13:53We moved here for work and just like everybody else, we need daycare for our kids and there's
13:58not many options.
14:00Childcare in the Bakken is in short supply.
14:03In a region where the population has surged in the last decade,
14:06there's simply not enough infrastructure in place to keep up with basic demand.
14:11I got here at 11.45 last night.
14:14I've got two kids and I've got to have two of those 100 spots.
14:18Well, there's not enough daycare in town and daycare is really expensive.
14:21So, I mean, if we have to work, we have to put our kids somewhere.
14:24Our daycare bill for both boys this month was $1,500.
14:28So, it's either get them signed up for the Boys and Girls Club or she's got to quit her job.
14:36I truly feel that it's a up situation.
14:39I'm sorry, I'm in a school board meeting.
14:43Deanna Sr. is at her second ever school board meeting in Williston, North Dakota.
14:48Especially like Stony Creek.
14:49With four children, a full-time job, and a husband who works long hours in the oil patch,
14:54Deanna doesn't need more to do.
14:57But she was raised in a family that values public service.
15:01When I was growing up, when I was a little girl, my dad was in politics.
15:04And all of my friends and all of my friends' parents admired my dad.
15:08Because he always wanted to make a positive change in the community.
15:13The school year is just beginning in District 8.
15:16And there are already major challenges.
15:19I have some concerns.
15:22I heard rumors that we're short quite a few teachers.
15:25Deanna's two daughters, Marata and Sydney, attend the district's new middle school.
15:30It's understaffed and will likely remain that way all year.
15:34When I started in here four years ago, I had 160 kids in the whole district.
15:39As of yesterday, we had 405.
15:42We have all the people coming in for the oil boom.
15:45The only problem is, we government agencies, we can't pay what the oil fields pay.
15:50We pay our teachers more than any other district in North Dakota.
15:55But housing is so expensive, and if they can't make it work, on a teacher's salary,
16:01these amazing people end up leaving.
16:05And it's truly heartbreaking.
16:07In my seventh grade class, I have about 30 kids.
16:10Three of them were from North Dakota.
16:13In my eighth grade class, I have one kid from North Dakota.
16:16And then it opens up here, and you see how you have this delta area.
16:19Mike Cohen is a recent arrival himself.
16:22He's come to the Bakken from Minnesota to kick start a career change.
16:26When I was younger, I had done all my education classes necessary to teach.
16:30I had been in the Peace Corps briefly.
16:32When I came back from the Peace Corps, I went to chiropractic school.
16:35And now after 25 years, I'm going back to my first choice.
16:40Like many incoming Boomtowners, Mike is improvising his living situation.
16:45If you go out in the parking lot, you'll see a beat-up white van.
16:49And that's what I've been sleeping in for the last three weeks.
16:52I had sold my practice to a young chiropractor.
16:55Five days before I was going to move here, she breached her contract.
16:59Instead of coming up here with thousands of dollars in my pocket,
17:02I came up here with $200 in my pocket.
17:06Rent $2,400 a month.
17:09You need first and last month's rent.
17:11You need a security deposit.
17:13That's why you have a lot of people that have lived that lifestyle.
17:16I don't mind.
17:17A lot of my young people have lived it.
17:19It just makes it so they can relate to me.
17:22Oh, these are expensive.
17:26I don't know how much these are.
17:28This is like buying a house.
17:29Ernie Graham and his son, Corbin, are working to help newcomers like Mike.
17:33They're California developers who want to provide an alternative to temporary homes
17:38like these display trailers.
17:40These are all around Tioga, Wadford, Williston.
17:44I've actually never been in one.
17:46Well, here's your chance.
17:48It's hard to move to a new place.
17:50Yeah.
17:51It's even harder to move to the Bakken.
17:53Right.
17:54Corbin and Ernie's solution to the housing crisis in the Bakken is to build more permanent structures,
18:00long-term hotels and apartments like this one.
18:03And they're not alone.
18:05$350 million in building permits were issued just in Williston in 2013.
18:11We are in Tioga, North Dakota.
18:14Behind me is a hotel we're just finishing up.
18:17It's an 89 unit consisting of king suites, double queen rooms, and it's called an extended stay hotel.
18:25Okay, you want to walk me down one of these halls and we'll...
18:28Sure.
18:29The commercial washers and dryers were installed this week.
18:32My wife would love the size of those washers.
18:35Stairways are pretty much done.
18:37A little bit of touch-up paint to do, that's about it.
18:40Well, we can pop in one unit here right away.
18:42Okay.
18:43These kind of projects take about a year to put together, take about a year to build, and they take about a year to stabilize as far as the rent goes.
18:51So it's about a three-year process every time.
18:54The sound insulation is really good.
18:56I can't really hear the street.
19:00More developments like this are desperately needed.
19:03But the banks here are still wary of the boom and volatile oil prices.
19:07The primary difficulty for a developer is financing over here is exceedingly difficult.
19:14I think one of the reasons why the North Dakota banks are hesitant to invest in their own community is that they went through a boom bust in 82.
19:25Corbin and Ernie have found banks are reluctant to loan money for more than five years, fearing another bust.
19:32It may turn out to be a prudent policy, but right now it's hindering community growth and keeping housing costs high.
19:41I think that's something that's going to change in the future.
19:44These banks are going to become more sophisticated.
19:48They're going to hire experienced loan officers.
19:51And I think you'll see growth accelerate once the Western North Dakota banks start investing in their own community.
19:57Meanwhile, Ernie's son Corbin is in Stanley, North Dakota, a rapidly growing hub for the oil industry.
20:06This is the dirt.
20:08This is why we're raising money.
20:10The building that we're building right here is going to be a four-story, 89-unit, extended-stay, mainstay suites.
20:19Financing is the only thing holding up the project, and it's already crunch time.
20:24Corbin has raised $9 million, but needs another $3 million before he can break ground on his project.
20:31We have been having a little bit of trouble raising the debt, and winter is coming, and you can't do construction, or at least the beginning part of construction in the winter.
20:41If Corbin can't persuade banks to invest, then more people coming to the Bakken may find themselves out in the cold.
20:51It's a special day for the Bakken Liberty oil field services team.
20:55Company CEO Chris Wright is in town to meet with local landowners.
21:00In this industry, our partners are farmers, and they are significant partners of ours.
21:05With degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from MIT and UC Berkeley, Chris is one of the pioneers of fracking technology.
21:13Working on the shale revolution from the start, certainly had no idea how massive it would blow up to be.
21:19But I'd say quite proud of it, not just of what it means for the energy industry, but for Americans to have cheap, plentiful energy produced here.
21:26Cheaper oil could mean $300 billion in savings for Americans.
21:31Chris feels the technology he helped develop is a vast improvement on the oil fields of old.
21:37In North Dakota here, we use less than one half of one percent of the land to produce the oil from underground.
21:43Much smaller land footprints, much more production per well, which means less wells, less potentials for leaks, less potential for problems.
21:51But that's still an impact, but it's a dramatically smaller impact than conventional oil and gas production before.
21:57Today, Chris is visiting the farm of Sam and Jody Sageser.
22:03Sam's family has been farming since the late 1800s.
22:06The Sagesers have been providing water from their land to nearby Liberty frack sites.
22:14It's an important relationship, one Chris means to keep.
22:18One of the things I'm proudest of, as far as the local community impact, farming itself is far more viable.
22:25Even though it can be very tough to make money and survive as a farmer,
22:29if you can supplement that with income from your kids working in oil and gas rigs,
22:34from getting farm royalties, money for buying water off farmers,
22:38that synergy with the oil and gas industries made farmers stronger,
22:41and of course the oil and gas industry wouldn't exist without synergy with farmers.
22:46That synergy has brought a lot of new wealth to the state.
22:50North Dakota went from 39th in per capita income in 2006 to 7th in per capita income in 2012.
22:58So that's an enormous rise in human well-being.
23:03I don't think the oil boom is bad.
23:05You get some bad publicity when a pipeline springs a leak or something like that happens,
23:10but overall the oil boom has been good for Northwest North Dakota.
23:16That's the gospel.
23:19Chris Wright is aware of the controversy that surrounds fracking.
23:22It's a debate he's more than happy to engage in.
23:25It's very important to me that people in our industry as a whole
23:29are incredibly open about disclosure about exactly what we do.
23:33I often only half-jokingly say that opposition to the shale revolution
23:37is directly proportional to your distance from it.
23:40In New York and L.A., there's tremendous opposition to what we're doing.
23:44There's been a few polls in North Dakota.
23:46Around 75% of the residents of North Dakota think that the shale revolution is a positive.
23:51But any building, any construction, any advancement in society has an impact, and we're no different.
23:57And like in every other industry, it's human beings here.
24:00We design systems, but do mistakes happen? Do things fail? Absolutely.
24:05The key thing for me there is to make sure the benefits of it overwhelm the inconvenience of it.
24:21And if we continue to frack and communicate with that while they're on their drilling rig,
24:25they're going to run into big problems.
24:26So we went ahead and shut down operations.
24:28Hopefully they'll have it done by Sunday.
24:30That's the best case scenario.
24:32With the frack shut down because it's causing issues that could lead to a blowout at a nearby rig,
24:37Liberty Management meets back at headquarters to regroup.
24:40They expect to be out of service for at least 48 hours.
24:44We've got some guys on the yard that are going to help us do some basic maintenance,
24:47cleaning up type of thing.
24:49If we can't frack, we're going to use the time wisely.
24:53I mean, we've got all this big, expensive equipment just sitting out there
24:57doing absolutely nothing of what it's intended to do right now.
25:00We get guys doing little odds and ends things instead of doing their actual jobs.
25:05Nobody wants to be sitting around because they're not making money.
25:09You know, we're pumping, we're making money.
25:12The Liberty Oil Field Services crew can't just go home during a shutdown.
25:17The men here are mostly transitory oil workers with no ties to the Bakken other than work.
25:23I mean, these guys are away from their families.
25:25It is the world boom, right?
25:26It's the number one boom town in not just America, the world.
25:31It's a pretty dang good job. It really is.
25:33But the only sacrifice we do have to make is, you know, is being away from home.
25:37And a lot of guys, they do have hard times with that.
25:40What other reason would they have besides to come here, make a good living for their family back home?
25:46You know, because let's face it, I mean, money doesn't replace time.
25:53Attracting more families of oil workers to the Bakken would be good for everyone.
25:58But they won't come unless affordable housing is available.
26:01So, development needs to occur.
26:04And we're part of that growth and we need to tell that story to a lot of the bankers and become our partners.
26:09Today, Corbin's meeting with people who might lead him to potential investors.
26:14Dennis Lindell is well-connected in this county and helps to educate out-of-state developers.
26:20Right here, you know, they're putting in the railroad.
26:23That's going to bring 100 more trains through the city of Stanley per day.
26:27There's already 100 trains going through.
26:29So, we're talking about big numbers for workers, which speaks to exactly what you're doing.
26:36It's exactly the kind of demand that I'm trying to service.
26:38This is a hot spot right here in the Bakken right now.
26:41Another good thing for your equity partners to know is that Montreal County is the number one producing county of shale oil in the entire United States.
26:48They're hitting oil wells right now at 5,000 barrels a day in this area.
26:54It really helps to have local contacts.
26:57This is not my realm, so it helps.
27:01You have to have an alignment of interest from debt providers to equity providers, the city, and then the community, which is the end-all user.
27:07And right now, a lot of those things are in flux, you know, and it's really hard to bring all that chaos together.
27:16Corbin hopes former Stanley, North Dakota mayor, Mike Heenick, can help sway the local investment community to complete his financing needs.
27:25The more wells they drill, the more people it takes to service them. Simple as that.
27:30We still need to keep building homes, and we still need apartment buildings.
27:34We're looking at apartment buildings right now.
27:35We still need additions to schools. We still need retail. We still need all of that.
27:40In the next two weeks, it's serious crunch time for me, because if the winter comes and freezes my cement, then I'm stuck, and that's a very, very bad thing.
27:53First. That must be first.
27:56Are 18 speeds and 13 speeds completely different?
27:59Yeah, they're flip-flopped.
28:02Haley Mint is planning to solve a major cash flow problem by purchasing a second truck to diversify her business.
28:08Yeah, they're different. There's more gears.
28:10Yeah. Oh, wow. I don't know. I know nothing about this.
28:16She recently ran into the owner of this truck in a bar, and he wants to sell.
28:25How many gallons are those tanks?
28:26110s.
28:27110s?
28:28Both sides. I just replaced all four rear shocks this morning.
28:33It runs good.
28:36The blower's never had anything run through it.
28:38Haley has a lead on possible work with KC Transport, a sand hauling company.
28:43But to haul sand, the truck will need a blower to offload it.
28:48If I get the second truck, it already has a blower on it.
28:51So I don't have to worry about that expense of getting a blower put on this truck.
28:55A blower is used at frack sites to transfer sand from the truck to a hopper,
29:00where it is mixed with fluids and sent down the well at high pressure.
29:04Each shale well requires about 5 million pounds of sand.
29:07That's about 100 truck loads and a lot of opportunity for these entrepreneurs.
29:12I talk to KC Sand, and they'll keep me busy, and they'll get me hooked up with a pneumatic trailer.
29:17And they work 80-plus hours a week, and so I can take in about $30,000 a month.
29:23Brand new.
29:24I don't know.
29:25This is probably a pretty good freaking deal.
29:28Yeah, it's just $42,000.
29:31I know.
29:32$42,500.
29:33When it comes to buying a truck, I'm very, very torn.
29:38I know how much potential there could be, but then I also know how big of a risk it is,
29:43and I'm not really that much of a risk taker.
29:47A week ago, we were sitting at the table, you know, wondering how we can make ends meet,
29:52and now, a week later, we're sitting here thinking about another truck.
29:56That makes me sick to my stomach.
29:59What do you think, babe?
30:01It's got a nice steering wheel.
30:05$40,000, what did you say?
30:07Total dollars on the truck?
30:08Yeah.
30:09$42,500.
30:10$42,500.
30:11Haley likes what she sees, but credit is a problem.
30:15I don't know how we're going to make it work, especially since a lot of our credit cards
30:21are already maxed out.
30:23Haley's plan hinges on convincing the truck's owner to provide financing.
30:28Why do you want to lease to own it instead of just buy it?
30:31I can't get that big of a loan right now.
30:33Oh, we did have this talk.
30:34Yeah.
30:35Grassroots start up.
30:36They don't want to give you all that money.
30:37Yeah.
30:38You've got to make money before you buy money.
30:39Yeah.
30:40But you're willing to lease, too?
30:41Yeah, I'll lease it.
30:42If you want to lease to own it, then you're going to, then I'm going to sign my rights
30:46to the truck away to you.
30:47That's the way that's going to work.
30:48The only way I'm going to be a participant in the vehicle at all is if, is if you don't
30:52make your payments.
30:53Then I'm going to come get it.
30:55It's definitely sink or swim.
30:57And the last thing I want to do is sink.
31:00So I'm not too worried about it.
31:02Things will fall into place how they're supposed to.
31:04Thanks.
31:06We'll see you again.
31:08It's a big gamble, and their livelihood is at stake.
31:11Haley and Larissa have 24 hours to make a decision.
31:24Mackenzie County, North Dakota is in the heart of the Bakken Boom.
31:28It was a pretty good spill.
31:30It was about 100 feet of oil went straight up in the air and then created a black crater.
31:34Carolyn Rockvoy is the county's emergency manager.
31:38OK.
31:39OK.
31:40Be safe.
31:41All right.
31:42Love you.
31:43Love you, too.
31:44Bye.
31:45It's yet another early start for Carolyn in Boomtown, where the influx of people and
31:50industry has created a unique and diverse set of challenges.
31:53We have truck wrecks all the time.
31:56If a truck, one of these big semi trucks with a tank or wrecks and spills hazardous materials,
32:02then I'm immediately called out.
32:04I work with a company person to get that all cleaned up.
32:08I notify the Department of Health.
32:10Normally, an emergency manager responds to disasters.
32:14For an example, this is a tornado we had May 26th.
32:17Mackenzie County has had 14 tornadoes in the last 50 years.
32:22Before, there wasn't a population or there wasn't the man camps, the RV parks, the mobile home parks that there are today.
32:29One of Carolyn's biggest challenges occurred recently when the boom literally went boom.
32:35The Bakken labor shortage affects almost everything here, including weddings.
32:52For Jennifer Nielsen, getting married is a do-it-yourself affair.
32:57Yeah.
32:58I think it looks good.
33:00Awesome.
33:01The wedding is in about a day and a half now.
33:06I'm oddly calm about the fact that it is probably going to rain, 80% chance.
33:11So this is the aisle, okay?
33:13The aisle where you're going to walk in it?
33:14Uh-huh.
33:15Oh, you're not coming from where I'm going?
33:17To walk with me.
33:18So this would be the aisle.
33:20Tables here and here.
33:22Jennifer grew up in the Bakken.
33:24She knows she can count on the community to help with her big day.
33:29Yeah, and we had planned for everything to be outside in the starlight, but now we have to put these tents up to keep everybody from getting wet.
33:37If I break a nail, I'm going to be mad.
33:41Jennifer's planned a big wedding, so more than 200 people will have to be fed and sheltered.
33:46If it does rain and we've got to shove everything under the tent, I'm worried that there's not going to be enough room, that I underestimated the size of the two tents that are coming.
33:58So excited to get married and for our life together.
34:01And everyone also tells me, don't get discouraged once the wedding gets over, because everything will go back to normal, you know?
34:05But I want us to go back to normal.
34:07I like us when we were normal.
34:09I'm so excited.
34:10I'm not nervous about anything in regards to marrying John.
34:23They just opened the doors.
34:24We don't want to be wet anymore.
34:26After hours of waiting to sign their children up for daycare, Ben and the other parents get to come in from the rain.
34:33OK.
34:34And how many kids?
34:37Finally got in.
34:38We got to stop waiting in that line, and now we get to come wait in this line.
34:42But at least this line doesn't have a range.
34:45I'm the very last one.
34:46100.
34:47I can't believe it.
34:48I overslept.
34:49Two alarms.
34:50Got dressed.
34:51No deodorant.
34:52Nothing.
34:53Just got here.
34:54Forgot my checkbook.
34:55Had to go back home.
34:56And now I'm here.
34:59I'm here.
35:00I'm here.
35:01Hi.
35:02Hi.
35:03Hi.
35:04No casualties when the door opened?
35:06No, no, no.
35:07No dead men.
35:08No headlines for the morning.
35:10Skip this over with.
35:11I have to leave at 7.30 to be there in time.
35:13A daycare spot is now within reach, but Ben and Phoebe's quest is far from over.
35:18Oh, it's our turn.
35:19All right.
35:20It's us.
35:22All right.
35:23Which room are we going to now?
35:24Your paperwork's done, right?
35:25Yeah.
35:26No.
35:27We don't know where we're going either.
35:28That door on the left.
35:29Who said door on the left?
35:30No, the second door.
35:31Yeah.
35:32We're looking for the second time.
35:33Yeah.
35:34Found it.
35:35It's nearly an hour later when their paperwork is finally complete.
35:51Here's our paperwork.
35:53So we're in.
35:54That's it?
35:55Yay.
35:58Love you.
35:59Bye.
36:00Bye.
36:01By the time Ben makes it home tonight, Phoebe and the children will be fast asleep.
36:07He'll catch a few hours of shut-eye before waking up to start another day in Boomtown.
36:13We recommend to get everybody the hell out of here.
36:14OK.
36:15Really, what if those breacher tanks go?
36:16OK.
36:17Those lids are going to come over.
36:18OK.
36:19They're trying to put it out.
36:20Two or three hours into it, I took this video, and that's just how it was burning all night
36:29like that.
36:30Wow.
36:31That's unreal.
36:32The boom has brought many benefits to the Bakken, but it's also brought a unique set
36:37of dangers.
36:38And this must have been when the second tank finally let go.
36:43And it just keeps going on and on until...
36:45Wow.
36:46So we decided at that time we should move.
36:50Oil haulers have to ground their trucks when delivering payload.
36:54If they don't, a simple static charge can be disastrous.
36:58In this case, failure to ground sent 1,600 barrels into flame, burning over $80,000 worth
37:05of crude.
37:06Fortunately, incidents like this are extremely rare.
37:10An explosion was so loud that they felt it 10 miles away in Alexander.
37:15So everybody was heading this way.
37:18Nobody was hurt, no fatalities, which was a blessing.
37:21Among the first responders, the all-volunteer Alexander Fire Department.
37:26You basically sit back and watch it burn and just contain it.
37:32Alexander's unique location halfway between the boom towns of Watford and Williston means
37:38their first responders answer a lot of calls for a town with a population of 300.
37:43And to think about all the calls that this fire department goes on.
37:48I think they said it used to be 20 calls a year.
37:51Now it's 20 calls a month.
37:52Because of the oil and what it has brought to our state, it's just not natural disasters.
37:57It's man-made disasters as well.
38:00This is the largest oil boom that has happened in America.
38:03And right here in Watford City and Mackenzie County is the epicenter of what's going on right now.
38:08But what has happened here in our community has just changed everything.
38:17It has a blower on it, and we can go put it to work right now.
38:20Haley Mint is very close to making a decision that could make or break the fledgling trucking company she owns
38:26with fiancee Larissa Hurst.
38:28Hey, Mom.
38:29What are you doing?
38:30Just filling out a buy-sell agreement.
38:33For what?
38:34For a semi.
38:35Why?
38:36Because this one has a blower on it, and they're doing a lease to own for $1,800 a month.
38:41Oh, Haley, you just couldn't keep her.
38:46This truck has a blower on it so I can put it on with KC Sand.
38:50KC Transport is a company that hauls frac sand to sites around the Bakken.
38:55If we get this truck, if that's what Haley decides to do, then we won't get paid from the company.
39:03That we're going to haul for 45 days.
39:06In addition to spending money they don't have, Haley will have to work a month and a half before she sees a dime.
39:13This is a crucial decision for the future of mint condition trucking.
39:18I don't think it's very smart to buy a truck for not going to have any work.
39:22I don't think it's very smart to buy a truck in the beginning.
39:29Why are you doing that?
39:30I'm just kidding.
39:31Like, this isn't just a decision you make at a bar one night.
39:34You're struggling to begin with, then you just jump right in and buy a $40,000 truck with nothing to back you if something happens.
39:41Like, that's nerve-wracking.
39:43That's why when we started the business to begin with, we needed $30,000 in the bank because we needed that cushion if something were to happen.
39:51We don't have a cushion if we buy another truck and the truck breaks down.
39:56We are all very happy, including Jennifer, that it didn't end up raining.
40:09We've been checking the weather every hour on the hour.
40:11We thought for sure at 6 o'clock we'd have rain, but here we are, no rain.
40:17The shortage of service workers in the Bakken led to a true do-it-yourself wedding.
40:22We took a week off from work, me and John both,
40:25thinking that we would have a week of relaxation within a day or two here.
40:30Relaxing.
40:31No, they wanted a week of partying.
40:33No.
40:34We got a week of setting up tents.
40:35Basically, slave driving.
40:37And we sat out all night just to make sure we were weather-tested until 5 o'clock in the morning through a torrential rainstorm.
40:44You guys were here until at least 6.
40:467.
40:47I mean, tip for tap once an hour here and there.
40:52Like an old-fashioned country wedding, it's taken the hard work of two families and all of their friends to transform an empty field into the perfect setting for this Bakken bride.
41:02Will you have Jennifer to be your lawful wedded wife and with her to live together in matrimony?
41:07I will.
41:08These things I promise all the days of our lives.
41:10These things I promise all the days of our lives.
41:12I get the pleasure of presenting to you, Mr. and Mrs. John Carlyle.
41:24Hey, Ray.
41:25Grab mine.
41:26It's the one with the side twist and a dent it.
41:29John Carlyle.
41:30I have run with him for the better half of 11, 12 years.
41:37He's been through three divorces, two divorces, no, three divorces.
41:43And for him to marry the sister of the woman that birthed Cash is absolutely, I mean, I'm telling you, the family, I couldn't ask for any better.
42:00Despite the Bakken labor shortage, Travis Peterson has managed to hire enough staff for the grand opening of his Brew Pub restaurant.
42:08We are moments away from opening up.
42:11I'm actually kind of nervous.
42:13It's exciting that they're jazzed to come in here.
42:15This moment right here I've been waiting for for a year and a half.
42:20Hey, everybody.
42:21How you doing?
42:22Come on in.
42:23Enjoy the beer.
42:24This is official.
42:31We're finally a brewery, so.
42:32Congratulations.
42:33Yeah, well, thank you.
42:34Mano Lark restaurant is a sign of the changing times in the Bakken.
42:38Where dining options were once limited to bars and fast food, the arrival of higher income families has created a demand for more upscale amenities.
42:47We're very proud of our son.
42:48It's been a lot of work for him.
42:50What you see here took lots of time and effort.
42:53And finding the right people for the job.
42:57We're here to help this thing going.
43:00I'm excited for my husband.
43:02You know, all these years he's dream kind of coming through and seeing him nervous is kind of cute.
43:07A year and a half.
43:08Like, this is like the frosting on the cake.
43:10Officially releasing our beer is my dream come true.
43:18Oh, God.
43:20It'll be fine.
43:22Just let me do my thing.
43:25Yeah, but it's not just your thing.
43:27Like, it affects the both of us.
43:29Haley and Larissa have made their decision.
43:32They'll soon be operating a second truck.
43:35We want to do a trial run.
43:36Leasing the truck for three months to see how it goes.
43:40And then after that, take over the payments to own it.
43:44Larissa's fine with it, I believe.
43:46Are you nervous?
43:48Don't worry, Lord.
43:49Just relax.
43:50Just let it happen.
43:51We'll pick it up.
43:52And it'll blow up on the way to Billings.
43:53And then I'll be like, babe, you're right.
43:54When we first get that, we get that first big check, you're going to faint.
43:55Not the fan you down and give you some cold water.
43:56Whatever.
43:57It's okay, Rissa.
43:58It's real.
43:59Haley and Larissa will pick up the truck tomorrow.
44:02While their frack is shut down, Travis Bostic, Justin Allen, and other Liberty employees are taking advantage of this rare downtime.
44:15Nice.
44:16It's okay.
44:17It's okay.
44:18It's okay.
44:19It's okay.
44:20It's okay.
44:21It's okay.
44:22It's okay.
44:23It's okay.
44:24It's okay.
44:25It's okay.
44:26It's okay.
44:27It's okay.
44:28It's okay.
44:29It's okay.
44:30It's okay.
44:31Nice, Travis.
44:32Oh, hard turn.
44:33God damn it.
44:42Mine's down in the water, dude.
44:43Don't feel bad.
44:44Oh.
44:45I almost said that's where you suck, but you actually made that.
44:50Well.
44:51Oh, mother.
44:53Oh, that works too.
44:57I'll take that.
45:00Most Liberty employees work two weeks on and then take two weeks off, essentially working six months a year.
45:08While in the Bakken, the hours are intense and there isn't much time for golf, which might explain the poor quality of play.
45:16Is that a location right there?
45:19Yeah, it is.
45:20Holy .
45:21It is.
45:22Yeah.
45:23Pump jack unit and everything.
45:24It's a hell of a lot nicer here.
45:27It's all fun and games today, but back on the frack site, time off is always better when it's earned.
45:34It's never an easy thing necessarily to kind of shut down and have to come back into it.
45:40It's just a matter of just waiting now at this point.
45:43Nobody likes to wait for things they like doing, you know.
45:47The shutdown is expected to last for two more days.
45:51When it's safe, fracking will begin again and continue until all 70 stages of these two wells are completed.
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